OREANDA-NEWS Currently, the European Union (EU) countries continue to increase purchases of Russian gas, despite the desire to reduce dependence on fuel from the Russian Federation. This was stated by the head of the Department of Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dmitry Birichevsky, RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

According to European statistics, the analyst recalled, according to the results of the first half of 2024, Russian gas exports to the EU exceeded the bar set for the same period in 2023. Against this background, the share of this fuel from the Russian Federation in the structure of EU imports now reaches 15 percent, he said. "The import of Russian gas to the EU countries tends to grow," Birichevsky concluded.

The diplomat added that in January-June, France became one of the leaders in terms of the growth rate of purchases of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia. This European country has more than doubled its imports of this type of fuel — from 2 to 4.4 billion cubic meters. Most of the imports, as explained by Birichevsky, went to re-export.